"I Do"

What do you think of when you hear the phrase, "I do"?  This past weekend was Easter Sunday, while we were at church I kept hearing "I do".  I was one of the ones that said "I do" as part of a beautiful baby dedication/baptism.  It was a phrase that was heard throughout the sanctuary as others, including the baby's momma (the baby that I held nestled in my arms), were baptized (fully immersed in water, a choice made as a commitment to God).  "I do", a commitment phrase that was heard around the world on Easter as people were pronouncing their belief that Jesus Christ is Lord.  "I do" a commitment phrase heard around the world every day as others are getting married and committing themselves to stay with their mate they have chosen: For better or worse, Richer or poorer, Through sickness and health.  A promise, a commitment, to serve and to love.  What have we committed our-self to? What are we dedicated to as we live our day to day life?

Sadly, I have been married two times to two very different men in two very different ways.  I have written in more detail on my first marriage in "Sin's False Love", so I will spare you and me both from that road trip for now.  In that marriage I committed myself to a man and he became my lord, and because of that commitment to a man, we both fell apart.  This time I am married again, but the commitment is different.  My commitment is to Christ first, then to my marriage.  When Jason and I were married we had within our vows that we were confident that God had chosen the other for us.  We were confident and made our declaration to God to be focused on Him first, then our marriage within this new family, second.  Two very different commitments. Two very different lives. One filled with Christ as the center, the other with relational infidelity ruling us. Commitments just the same, one that was self serving adultery and the other a servant that is full of abundant life.

Easter weekend, a very big weekend indeed!  Christ went to the cross as an atoning sacrifice, a sin offering.  He lived gallantly and died with sin on display before the world.  Colossians 2:15, "He disarmed those who once ruled over us—those who had overpowered us. Like captives of war, He put them on display to the world to show His victory over them by means of the cross." Then after He rose He gave all of us a charge.  Mark 16:15, "Go out into the world and share the good news with all of creation. Anyone who believes this good news and is ceremonially washed (in water baptism) will be rescued, but anyone who does not believe it will be condemned."  At the end of all of the gospels is a charge to all of us to go out and tell our live's story, so that His story is revealed to the world, our world that we are each a part of. In Jonh 21, Jesus appears to His disciples and asks Peter three different times, "Do you love me?" All three very hurt-felt moments on Peters confession of his love for his Lord, he says, "Yes Lord, You know I love You."  Then Jesus' charge, "Feed My sheep, look after My people, share My story." We are each called to go alone on this journey. It is our personal journey that we must do alone, Oswald Chambers. 

I thought I would sleep in this morning.  I thought that since I went to bed around 12:30am, that I would be able to sleep till at least 7am.  I am not bragging.  I am not saying that everyone must get up at 5:30am, but I am saying that my alone time with my God was calling.  I hear His voice better in the morning, before my boys awake, before life distractions take my focus, but even with this I must be careful.  Do you Worship the Work?  Must I have "my time with God"?  Often, I have discovered that my alone time "with God", can become a work, if it is interrupted, I do not live as someone in love with Christ.  "I worship my time with my coffee" is more like it. Every moment of every day, I must call myself to refocus.  I must commit myself to be committed to Him and what He is showing me in that moment, where I should walk, who I should show His love to.  It is when my heart is being selfish that I discover I am living in "sin" no matter how good it may appear on the surface.  I am saying this because this past Easter Sunday, my alone time with my coffee was interrupted.  I call it my coffee time, because my focus was not on my God at all, but on a time of day to be quiet with my coffee. If that interruption destroys my story about my "changed" life with Christ, my focus is taken off of Him and how I am to show His love to others, die to myself, and rise new with Him.  It is distorted and relational infidelity is the result. The Habit of having No Habits

Are we able to live in focus with our God?  Have we made that commitment with our own lives and are we following through with that commitment?  He has proven His love for us.  He felt it well worth it to live as one of us.  He did not come to be one of us in the glory and "easy" life, but He chose to be born in poverty, to be baptized to show part of His obedience, to die a disgraceful death upon a cross.  But all of it, His whole life and ours, is about the Resurrection to a New Life, and that is well worth living for.  It is about disarming that power that once ruled over us and living free with Christ as our ruler.  Who/what is your ruler?  Where is our commitment today?